1. Field
The invention relates to wireless communications. More particularly, the invention relates to methods and apparatus for scaling transmit power of signals in wireless communications.
2. Background
Wireless communications continues to grow in demand and has become an integral part of both personal and business communications. Wireless communications allow users to transmit and receive data from most anywhere using wireless networks and wireless devices such as laptops, cellular devices, iPhones®, BlackBerrys®, etc.
Wireless fidelity (WiFi) describes the wireless networks that adhere to the specifications developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) for wireless local area networks (LAN). WiFi devices are certified to be interoperable with other certified WiFi devices using the 802.11 standard of the IEEE. These WiFi devices allow over-the-air interfaces in order to create a wireless network for facilitating data transfer.
WiFi uses carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) or request to send (RTS)/clear to send (CTS) signaling to perform distributed scheduling of peer-to-peer transmissions. For example, before a node transmits a signal, the node listens to the communications channel via CSMA to determine if the communications channel is available or unavailable. If the communications channel is available, the transmitting node transmits a RTS signal to a receiving node. Similarly, the receiving node transmits a CTS signal if it detects that the communications channel is available. If the communications channel is unavailable, the node waits to transmit until the communications channel is available. Hence, the transmission delays are increased with an increased number of nodes using the network.
In addition, the asynchronous nature of WiFi further impacts the latency and the power efficiency of the nodes. That is, transmissions and receptions using WiFi are not synchronized but rather are performed in an asynchronous manner. For example, a WiFi transmitter may try to communicate with a WiFi receiver at a random time and if the WiFi receiver is not ready to communicate at the random time or is surrounded by other WiFi transmitters trying to communicate with the WiFi receiver, the WiFi receiver is unable to receive the data correctly in which case the WiFi transmitter may decide to back-off and transmit at a later time (e.g., 10 milliseconds later). This example illustrates the inherent latencies in WiFi communications. Furthermore, power inefficiencies are also increased for the WiFi transmitter and the WiFi receiver.
Therefore, it has been recognized by those skilled in the art that a need exists for methods and apparatus for scaling transmit power of signals in wireless communications.